By Phil RogersTalking baseball as spring training moves into its first full week:
1. Best-case scenarios are story lines for suckers, sure, but it never hurts to root for the happy ending. Consider the highly motivated Andruw Jones. He arrived at the White Sox camp early and sassy, at one point calling himself the best center fielder on the property.
That seems unlikely, as Jones was only moderately adequate in the outfield for Texas last season. But the man has won 10 Gold Gloves and came to Glendale in good shape (minus the spare tire he packed in the last season or two of his 12-year stay in Atlanta). He's expected to get most of his playing time as part of a DH platoon, but if he could play well in the outfield he will give Ozzie Guillen a chance to use Carlos Quentin as the DH, lessening the chance he will have a recurrence of plantar fasciitis.
Photo: Andruw Jones figures mainly as a DH for the Sox but also could play the outfield. (AP)
In Alex Rios, Juan Pierre and a rejuventated Jones, Guillen would have
himself three center fielders -- four if you count Mark Kotsay, a
regular there as recently as 2008 for the Braves. This is a far cry from
most of 2008 and the pre-Rios portion of 2009, when the Sox didn't have
a single center fielder. Sox pitchers should enjoy having Pierre, Rios,
Jones, Quentin and Kotsay behind them. And as a spring bonus, they
also will glimpse the future in LSU product Jared Mitchell, the '09
first-rounder who offers long-term potential as, ideally, a center
fielder and leadoff man.
2. Written in No. 2 pencil, the eraser kept at the ready, the teams most likely to surprise in 2010 are Seattle and Milwaukee. The Mariners won 85 games a year ago, a 24-game improvement from '08. The Brewers slipped to 80 wins from 90 in '08. But both could be 90-plus win teams this season.
The Brewers (like the Cardinals and Phillies) have an AL-style middle of the order with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder and are adding an impact player in shortstop Alcides Escobar, who won a batting title over the winter. They've improved their pitching staff by adding Randy Wolf, Doug Davis and LaTroy Hawkins behind Yovani Gallardo and Trevor Hoffman. The Mariners have two of the 10 best starting pitchers in the majors in Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee and a killer top of the order with Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins.
Of course, the Mariners also have Milton Bradley, don't they? Maybe he'll sink them, as he has been saddled with more than his share of responsibility for doing to the 2009 Cubs. But the bet here is that the M's will be a lot smarter about handling Bradley than the Cubs were. Partly as a result of that, and partly just because he can hit, he'll contribute more than disrupt.
Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu was on Ron Washinton's coaching staff in Texas, so he knows how the Rangers kept Bradley's head in the game in 2008. Bradley demands extra attention and a nurturing climate, but the Cubs somehow ignored the blueprint that was followed by the Rangers. They did that because: A) Bradley so snowed Jim Hendry that everyone assumed a $30 million contract would make Bradley a $30 million player, and B) Lou Piniella doesn't do warm and fuzzy. Piniella and Bradley were a bad marriage; Wakamatsu and Bradley should be a good one.
2. Written in No. 2 pencil, the eraser kept at the ready, the teams most likely to surprise in 2010 are Seattle and Milwaukee. The Mariners won 85 games a year ago, a 24-game improvement from '08. The Brewers slipped to 80 wins from 90 in '08. But both could be 90-plus win teams this season.
The Brewers (like the Cardinals and Phillies) have an AL-style middle of the order with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder and are adding an impact player in shortstop Alcides Escobar, who won a batting title over the winter. They've improved their pitching staff by adding Randy Wolf, Doug Davis and LaTroy Hawkins behind Yovani Gallardo and Trevor Hoffman. The Mariners have two of the 10 best starting pitchers in the majors in Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee and a killer top of the order with Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins.
Of course, the Mariners also have Milton Bradley, don't they? Maybe he'll sink them, as he has been saddled with more than his share of responsibility for doing to the 2009 Cubs. But the bet here is that the M's will be a lot smarter about handling Bradley than the Cubs were. Partly as a result of that, and partly just because he can hit, he'll contribute more than disrupt.
Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu was on Ron Washinton's coaching staff in Texas, so he knows how the Rangers kept Bradley's head in the game in 2008. Bradley demands extra attention and a nurturing climate, but the Cubs somehow ignored the blueprint that was followed by the Rangers. They did that because: A) Bradley so snowed Jim Hendry that everyone assumed a $30 million contract would make Bradley a $30 million player, and B) Lou Piniella doesn't do warm and fuzzy. Piniella and Bradley were a bad marriage; Wakamatsu and Bradley should be a good one.
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I'm curious, Phil ... what exactly do you feel the Cubs did wrong in "handling" Milton Bradley?
Any idea why this would be tagged Cubs? Who cares about this???